Solar Sister

Solar Sister recruits, trains and mentors women to build sustainable businesses selling portable solar lamps, mobile phone chargers and clean cookstoves. It combines the breakthrough potential of clean energy technologies with a network of grassroots women entrepreneurs. Solar Sister entrepreneurs use their social networks to provide the most effective distribution channel to rural and hard to reach customers.

Modern energy has life-transforming benefits, such as improved education for children, better indoor air quality for families, and improved economic well-being for women. The core business of Solar Sister is sales and distribution, which generates a steady and growing income stream. At the individual level, each Solar Sister entrepreneur is empowered to create a financially self-sustaining business. The cost of the establishment, support and training and ongoing management of the Solar Sister network is an investment in the long-term income opportunity. Growth and capacity building financed from donor support and grants are helping establish a base of operations that will, at scale and in the longer term, generate sufficient income from the sale of clean energy products to finance operations. Since 2009, more than 3,000 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs have brought light, hope and opportunity to over 1 million people in Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria.